3rd February: global refining update

Canada

A buyer has still not been found for the Come by Chance oil refinery after being put on the market last year. The facility is owned by Harvest Energy and was put on the market after parent company; Korean National Oil Company announced intensions to sell all its Canadian assets.

China

BP is apparently dropping out of plans to invest in a Chinese refinery. The company is to withdraw interest due to the slowdown in economic growth in the country.

Kazakhstan

China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corp. has been awarded a services contract by PetroKazakhstan Oil Products LLP. The contract is related to the upgrade of the 5.25 million tpa Shymkent refinery. PetroKazakhstan is a joint venture between KazMunaiGas and China National Petroleum Corp.

Pakistan

An oil refinery in Rawalpindi has received a threatening letter demanding US$ 5 million to prevent the facility being blown up. The letter was received on 31st January and stipulated that it was giving the plant’s administration to pay before the threat was carried out.

Saudi Arabia

It has been reported that the Red Sea oil refinery is on track to be operational by the third quarter of this year. The plant is a joint venture between Saudi Arabia and China.

USA

Following a power outage at the Billings refinery, ExxonMobil warned last Friday that flaring could be part of the start up process of the units that were affects. The restart process was anticipated to take a few days.

Valero has announced plans to expand and upgrade the Corpus Christi refinery. The company are looking to spend US$ 340 million to allow the plant to process crude from the Eagle Ford Shale.

It has been reported that the Husky Energy Inc. owned Lima refinery in Ohio is not producing diesel. The halt in production has occurred, as a pump in the diesel hydrotreater needs replacing. As of 30th January, the unit ha already been offline for a week.